John Gutmann

(Breslau, Germany, 1905 - 1998, San Francisco, California)

German, American

John Gutmann, a pioneering figure of 20th century photography, was renowned for finding beauty in ordinary and everyday subjects such as advertisements, street scenes, and automobiles–subjects he would return to throughout his career. His own status as an outsider—of Jewish descent in Germany, a naturalized citizen in the United States—informed his focus on individuals from the Asian American, African American, and gay communities, as well as his photography in India, Burma, and China during World War II. Born in Germany where he trained as a painter and art teacher, he fled the Nazis in 1933 and settled in San Francisco, reinventing himself as a photojournalist. Gutmann brought a modernist sensibility to his black-and-white documentary photographs. Shooting from the waist, using a Roliflex camera, he combined unusual angles, close cropping to create works that were as poetic as they were impactful. Starting in 1936 he worked for Pix, Inc., a New York-based agency, which promoted his work for publication in magazines such as Time, The Saturday Evening Post, Life, and Look, earning him a reputation as a chronicler of his era. In addition to his work as a photographer, Gutmann was a dedicated educator. He taught at San Francisco State University starting in 1937 and for over three decades inspired generations of students with his passion for art and storytelling. His work is celebrated in major collections worldwide, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian Institution.

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